Parallel play

In developmental psychology, in anthropology, and even in zoology, 'parallel play' is a term which is used to refer to the activities of two or more individual social organisms in which the level of recognition, or sharing, between the organisms is limited to a mirroring of behaviors, so that there is no direct exchange of material or emotional resources. In autism, 'parallel 'play' refers to such a mirroring of behaviors such that the individuals generally, or even exclusively, do not engage in social language with each other, in some cases involving even the absence of eye contact (that most efficient, dynamic, and normally least costly, of all socially connective behaviors).